Happycrow

Sorry to be unclear: I've hit all the regular google finds and not received any replies (and cannot order a pallet's worth from Alibaba etc).

They're considered "unsalable" and not carried by most leather suppliers (and for good reason), but are the almost point-for-point historical equivalent once a little processing is done for something I need. Any ideas? (Tannery guys? If you're seeing this, I'm serious and I know what I'm asking for.) (Cannot use wet-blue, sorry)

Hey, Tasha. I've cut first, not cut first, cut and bevelled... nothing that I've done is letting me get a sharply defined high relief (which is what I really like on leather)... okay, not for Hungarian historical stuff, but for regular projects.

ARGH. At a couple of folks' suggestion, much as despise embossing in leather (I like doing it in metal, but leather drives me nutsoid, big-time), I'm experimenting with being able to emboss patterns into belts. But while I can raise a surface, no problemo.... I can't get a sharp edge on the raising -- certainly nothing like the edge I can get with stamps. Is there some kind of trick here? Or do I just need to bite the bullet and carve out lots of rigid filler material?

Ugh. Not a fan of embossing, unless I were doing production work. Okay, that's what I was afraid of, Rawhide: I'll go back to using paints, then.

Okay, let me try this again. Ignore everything I previously wrote: how do you get dye to penetrate leather that's been compressed b/c of stamping?

Um... no, not burning the leather. Burnishing, with the tools. I must be phrasing myself very poorly.

Problem is, folks... the areas I stamped down were so compressed/heat-burnt that dye didn't penetrate there AT ALL. But if I pre-dye,unless it's drum-dyed vegtan (do they even sell that?), it's going to look like ass when the undyed "cliffs" show. ::really stuck::

A closer view:

Computer's not recognizing the digicam's flash drive right now (argh), but I have a failure making a belt. I'm a pretty "young" leatherworker, and still discovering my particular style. In my case, I'm finding that I a- like REALLY deep stamping b- enjoy working within the restrictions imposed by belts (though I always imagine myself as more of a vest/jacket/bag guy I did a VERY deep stamp job, and wanted to get a two-tone effect. I've done lot of painting with acrylic, and am a rank amateur at dyes. So to fill the deep spaces, I made a wash with my dye, and filled the deep spaces (intending to get a light coloring), and then brushed heavily over the top (to get the main, darker color). But because I'd heat-burnished the lower areas stamping, I instead got NOTHING down there. Meaning, I have a blue-and-tan belt... usable, and pretty in its own way, but by any competent standard of critique, a complete failure as a piece. With paints, I know this would have worked. But if I do this in the future, using a paint wash will keep the dye from penetrating up top -- the paint will be there. So unless I say "the hell with it," and go back to the paints I know.... how do I do this? (I'll reboot Mr. Compy in a bit, and if I can get it to recognize the drive, will upload two pics I took)

Am up in Denton every Sunday...if I can figure out enough to have a project that won't actually waste your time, would be happy to take you up on it!

TwinOaks, that's one of the best descriptions I've seen. I've done a lot of experimentation on this score (though, sadly, my skills as a craftsman are poor: too many publications, too little actual work!), and the toughest bar-none leather we've seen treated this way was a half-tanned leather (meaning, it was not allowed to sit long enough for the tannings to penetrate all the way into the leather, resulting in a pure-rawhide core -- I prefer salt-soaking when I do this to discourage the buggies), which was then hot-stuffed with hide glue and baked wet at 170. There are LOTS of variations, and I've seen descriptions of hot pitch being used as well, both in experimentation and in a couple historical records (steppe sorts essentially making leather jawshan)

Yup. Thanks again.

AHHHHH.... No wonder I've been screwing it up, then. Not like doing a knife blade at all. Okay, thank you very much. I've got a sharp point, but couldn't get the edges I want (I'm frequently pushing through some fairly heavy and often low-quality leathers, so having that edge helping is a big deal for me, and I especially want to get away from being dependent on punches for my thonging work).

I'm an okay hand with sharpening knives... but I'm seriously striking out. I'm not talking about the little stab awl, but the diamond-shaped suckers that lock into a handle... how do you get an edge on these things?

Alan, I'm in DFW, and am very much in Marlon's camp. The stuff is gorgeous... and I'm a rank amateur. Would definitely attend so long as I wasn't visiting folks for Christmas.

Eagerly awaiting these results, as my old trick (hot-stuffing with lard) isn't usable now that I'm using dyes and such.

Hi, folks. I am doing a clothing project that specifically needs the kind of leather most tanners won't even let out of their shops... leather with markedly loose grain from overstaking. (NOT from chemical burn!) In theory I can use, well, LOTS... in practice, I'm a small shop, and can't really absorb a pallet's worth. But if anybody has a line on the stuff, or has some "I'd have to correct this grain" leather they don't mind running through their staking machine four or five times while saying "the hell with it," I'd love to talk to you.

Tracker, The metal you're using looks thick compared to what I've seen in museums (I'm a medievalist specializing in Hungary)... that might be adding to the weight. (As a historical side detail, the Scandinavian and Hungarian worlds got along famously, so yes, you see a lot of connections there, and eventually in what becomes the Rus, taking bits from both until they have their own very distinct style.) Oh. For those of you who don't do the language, Hungarian pronunciation can be counter-intuitive... it's pronounced TAR-shoy.

@TwinOaks: I'd love it if I could get upholstery leather that hadn't been split, but in this case, that's not what we're looking at. If you zoom in all the way to the shoulder of the buff coat, you'll see how the grain is actually standing up, having been opened to the point where it has no stiffness at all. So, wrinkled, YES, but not merely creased... wrinkled to the point where it alters the flow of the material entirely. @Drac: Wow. Was is boardy, or did it flop around like a garment leather should?

Hi, y'all. New to Leatherworker, and loving it... especially being inspired/intimidated by what you folks are able to produce! I have a question... I LOVE the really thick but super-supple leathers... and you never really see chrometans in better than 8 oz... and nowadays, nobody will even sell you a hide that's been softened to the point where there are deep and obvious grain imperfections like this: http://tinyurl.com/55qgo9 (You can zoom in to see the grain...) Is there any way to get this effect on a nice thick (unsplit) veg-tan? tnx, Russ